His soul was thrill’d with terror. On he went,

E’en to the snow-fring’d margin of the cragg,

Which to his citadel a platform made

Slipp’ry and perilous! ’Twas darkness, all!

All, solitary gloom!—The concave vast

Of Heav’n frown’d chaos; for all varied things

Of air, and earth, and waters, blended, lost

Their forms, in blank oblivion! Yet not long

Did Nature wear her sable panoply,

For, while the Hermit listen’d, from below